The Armoury

I suspect they'd splash out. Not certain, though.

Here's a list of injuries suffered by Abou Diaby since 2006.

Seems his body just can't handle professional football.

The Telegraph are reporting that Arsenal are going to be subject to a £1.5bn takeover bid from a 'Middle-east' consortium.

Huge news if true.

See that just before you posted it, we'll just have to wait and see i guess.

It's nothing but hearsay at the moment. I'm not even sure how I feel about that if it turns out to be true.

I don't like it, it'd reek of hypocrisy on the part of Wenger/the club as a whole if he spent that money.

Would probably mean the end of Wenger's time here as well :/

Mmm, I'm not so sure. We've already sold our soul to an American baseball fan so it might be worth seeing the club run by rich men who want to spend/ win trophies, rather than see the club run by rich men who don't want to spend or win trophies. If the story develops I'll look into it some more but I'm not overtly against such a takeover considering that we're completely stagnating under the current management.

Cup final day and i'm the least confident i've ever been against these cunts.

Arsenal are the jekyll and hyde team of the Premier League.

When they turn up you're fucked but when they're off they're really off.

Tempted to stay up to watch this game tonight.

Absolutely terrified.

Apparently Steve Bould has next to no influence in training sessions anymore, wouldn't be surprised if he was to quit now. Not much point in being an assistant if your not actually allowed to assist ffs.

Will paste what I said in the premiership thread in reply to TS.

I thought Ramsey was shit against Spurs?

I watched the game yesterday, the pitch was probably the worst I've seen in my life (including the sunday league etc). Great performance though they defended well.

Some big talents in that team, Chuba Akpom is a beast of a striker, scored in all of the Arsenal and England games he's played in lately and is much better than Afobe was at that age. Gnabry is also class.

Wilshere has done his ankle ligaments and will be out for the rest of the season apparently.

Diaby mk2.

This was all down to Wenger not strengthening the squad in jan. He's played basically every minute of every game since he returned from a year long injury because we don't have any one else that is good enough so it's no suprise that he's injured again. I just don't get how Wenger couldn't see this was going to happen.

Wenger being blind to weaknesses in his squad shouldn't be a surprise anymore. He's made a habit of it.

Fuck. That's us finishing 5th or lower then.

Ironic how he was complaining about the national team overplaying him.

If he's out for longer than the rest of this season,we can forget about qualifying for Europe.

It's cos Wilshere has bowed legs apparently, he was always be plagued by ankle injuries

Flappyhandski Fabianski was brilliant today, makes the goalkeeping situation interesting.

...

Yeah, it's definitely Ede.

So what do you think Arsenal need to do in the transfer market this summer?

Personally I could see them being a very good side again if they sorted out their defensive side, get a new keeper (used to rate Chesney, not sure anymore), and 2 centre backs (while I like Koscielny & Vermalen and on a good day they are top defenders, they are far to prone to lapses in concentration, a bit like Chesney).

I like Jenkinson at right back, and Monreal at left back. I also think they need someone in the middle of midfield along the lines of Gilberto Silva. Arteta seems to play the deeper role allowing his partner (normally Wilshere) to break forward but hes really not a defensive minded player.

They might want to strengthen up top but I think that Giroud has shown enough and I have confidence in his ability to come good next season.

With their 130mil odd cash reserves and more money from potential sales of dross (Gervinho, I'm looking at you) there is no reason why Arsenal cannot challenge next season, you just need to instill the mentality in Arsene that its ok to spend big every now and again for the good of the club.

Goal-keeper, centre-back, defensive midfielder and a striker.

Those would be the priorities for me, though there is room for improvement elsewhere.

That's the same positions they've needed every season for about 5 years now.